


Best Earthly Companion

by PinkLady80



Series: Ashton Beau Matthews [3]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 11:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15557001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkLady80/pseuds/PinkLady80
Summary: Auston returns to Arizona and Pack Matthews expands by one.





	Best Earthly Companion

**Author's Note:**

> "I ask you to pass through life at my side—to be my second self, and best earthly companion." 
> 
> Charlotte Brontë, "Jane Eyre"

After the Leafs loose in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Auston returns to Arizona.  He's not alone; Mitch keeps pace with him as they head for baggage claim.  He’s grateful not to be retuning home having disgraced his family.

Auston is in love.  He wants to tell the whole world.

It's been almost two months since that horrible day in the cold rain and Auston feels like a new man.  He and Mitch worked through their disagreements, kissed on every flat surface in Auston’s house, and played almost good-enough post-season hockey. 

All the paperwork needed to register a bond in Ontario is waiting in Auston's home office.

Auston's thoughts scatter as Mitch suddenly grabs his hand, pulling them into the doorway of a maintenance entrance.  Mitch pushes himself into Auston's arms, gripping the front of his t-shirt.  He’s nervous, Auston realizes.  Nervous about meeting Auston's family as his future bond-mate.  He's known Auston's parents for almost six years, but he hasn't seen them since the new year.  He hasn’t seen them since his challenge to Auston.  Auston's sisters like him but these are his parents.  The foundation of his family pack.

Auston frees his shirt from Mitch's grasp and tangles their fingers together, butterfly kisses heating up into other kinds of kisses.  Everything turns sweet and Auston feels Mitch's emotions calm as the kiss breaks.  Before they leave the imagined privacy of the doorway, Auston kisses each of Mitch's cheeks and then his palms, something Mitch can carry with him until he wears Auston's ring and his mark.

Mitch has braved the crush of people around the baggage carousel when Auston spots his mother standing by the exit.  She isn't alone.  Alex and her oldest daughter Celeste are with her, looking for Auston in the crowd.  This isn't just any pickup.  This a formal welcome by his mother and her line of succession; her acknowledgment of Mitch’s role in Auston’s life.

Celeste notices him and waves excitedly, squirming to be put down.

Mitch rejoins him, wrestling with the extending handle of their suitcase.  If he’s surprised to three Matthews instead meeting them instead of one, Auston can’t feel it.

Celeste brakes any tension when she tells Mitch she's excited to have him as part of their family and makes a little curtesy.  Mitch thanks her, bowing in return before Auston scoops her up, allowing for the ritual exchange of greeting and welcome between Mitch, his mother, and Alex.

The car ride back to Auston's parents' house is filled with Celeste's thoughts on her new baby sister and how her preschool class makes cards every time someone gets a new baby brother or sister.  Auston, who is riding shotgun next to Alex, wonders if leaving Mitch in the back with his mother was the right decision.  He’s debating on where or not to turn around and check on him, when he feels something skip down the bond.  Joy.  Mitch is fine.

At a red light, Alex squeezes his hand as if to say _See?  Everything is fine.  I told you so._   Older sisters; they always think they’re right.

The kitchen is filled with noise when they arrive.  Breyana, her finance Xavier, and Alex's husband, Nicolás, all working on dinner while Auston's father gives baby Andromeda a bottle.  Auston barely has time to introduce Mitch and hold Andi before Breyana is drafting them into service.  Mitch gets a hug, a melon-baller, and instructions to scoop out a cantaloupe, a honeydew melon, and a watermelon.  Auston pulls more steak out of the fridge for Nicolás, helps Celeste set the over-sized kitchen table, and is sent out to buy more wine.

Dinner is more talking and laughing.  Auston watches Mitch as he sways Andi back and forth; he has one hand under her bottom, the other rubbing her back while he talks with Auston’s dad about the Jays and D-backs. 

They had talked about babies once, on a dark, snowy night in Edmonton, and suddenly that’s all Auston can see.  His head is filled with images, Mitch and the children they’ll have together.  Little babies wrapped tight and smelling like something brand new.  A house filled with gear bags and school bags, A+ homework and schedules stuck to the fridge, and hallways with school pictures, life’s pictures, mounted on the walls.   And Mitch, right there with him, every step of the way.  Auston wonders how many children Mitch wants.

He reaches out, pulling Mitch a little closer and lacing his fingers through the beltloops of Mitch’s shorts.  He needs the contact, to be grounded after this revelation.  Mitch pushes his fingers through Auston’s hair as he leans into Mitch, trying not to squash Andi’s tiny foot.  He smells like warm chocolate, the expensive stuff Auston still imports on a regular basis.

The movement brings him into his mother’s line of sight and she looks at him over the rim of her wine glass.  She’s pleased.  He knows she’s happiest when all her family is together.  The years he lived in Michigan and Switzerland were hard on them all but Auston is sure they were hardest on her; the family pack spread out over thousands of miles and two continents.  He knows it’s still hard.  He’s saluting her with his own wine when his family bond rushes towards him, suddenly awake after hibernation brought on by distance.

He feels his mother, father, and sisters; emotions swirling, passing over each other, locking and unlocking.  He feels Celeste and Andi, small and soft.  He picks up echoes from Nicolás.  The full effect is like a patchwork quilt, the colors and shapes changing all the time.  Auston allows everything to wash over him.  He misses this, misses feeling his family pack.

But for the first time it feels incomplete.  Someone is missing; there is a hole in the pattern.  Mitch hasn’t been folded into the pack, even with the bond that formed between them in March.  It makes Auston’s heart ache.

After dinner, Mitch volunteers himself and Auston for clean-up duty and they wash and wipe in companionable silence.  Auston’s thoughts are jumping; he doesn’t have a ring yet, had wanted to wait until they got back to Toronto.  But that feels too long to wait.  Now feels right.

He wipes his hands on his shorts.

Mitch's fingers are wrinkled from dishwater when Auston gets down on one knee in the stillness of his parents' kitchen and promises him Forever.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction. All mistakes are my own.


End file.
